Sands of Chiaroscuro

All the fates come pouring down...

The City Under Glittering Crystals' Enhanced Light

Lots of abandoned and forgotten villages and small cities out there, not only from the contagion but also regular plague, inbreeding (especially if there’s nothing but wasteland for hundreds of miles about you), war, famine, raiders. In the middle of the glittering desert there’s a gorge, the glass having cracked over where there was once a gorge valley that has carved out a hollow in the stone itself long before the area was turned to glass. This area is downstream of an underground river that tunnels throughout the area and underneath the sands, but sunlight filters down. The plants that had once grown there were turned to crystal just as it’s population was, and fragments of the earth. The buildings that were carefully carved for centuries out of the living rock who’s facades are covered in a smooth cream marble have a small layer of quartz over it, not enough to be noticeable other than a shine that no amount of buffing could naturally give the stone. The river, spouting from a manse deep under the city itself, provides the water and continual nutrients that the area had grown their crops with, all sunlight hitting where the tiered fields were, natural flooding mixing with the part crystal soil and turning it organic again. Since then, and because of the fertility of the river, new unique plants have risen in the fields, all buildings built above the water line for the worst of the floods, and the piers existing on several differing heights. The park and farmland areas are flush with plants, there are vines twining around the latticework stone, intermingling with the quartz of what was once their living kindred. Everything was built to be sturdy and permanent, despite the fact that the gods of the city are dead as those remnants that had survived through the contagion. But here is a little bit of life that has flourished underneath one of the most desolate areas in creation, protected by no one knowing of it, and it’s natural camouflage of the desert above.

Manse 5 dot water manse

indestructable -5

Uninhabitable +3 (It’s a framework from whence water springs from the living rock, far underneith the ground, so you’ll have to dive deep to get the hearthstone or attune, if you can’t breathe water tough luck)

Provider -3 (This doesn’t work in the usual way, the manse was never set up to just give out foodstuffs, but it keeps giving out sediment that is fertile and has a leaning towards benifical lifeforms living there, whether good for food, or medicines, you’re just going to have to figure out which one is which first)

The water that comes out of the manse is hot, getting cooler as it makes it’s way through the long gorge, getting icy cold before it ducks under the rock once more. It allows the plants of a number of biomes and the animals supporting to survive there because of the vast difference of ‘climate’ change from one end to the next.

Stone of transformation

This stone isn’t much to look at, a sand rough stone of a dull bluish gray with flecks of what appears to be obsidian lodged within and somewhat lumpy like an unfortunate pebble one would find on the road. This stone allows one to not only change themselves superficially as with the gem of masks, but their body as well, though with the limitation that they cannot adjust their body mass more than 1/3 of what it is presently, giving a +5 bonus to larceny rolls involving disguise. Though this doesn’t change the scent of the individual, and any changes in voice will be because of their changing the shape of their own throat. This disguise cannot hide caste marks or other effects like it, if used for gender transformation the subject is still genetically their own gender when it comes to breeding, in turning into a man they cannot impregnate anyone, and in turning into a woman they cannot be impregnated with another man’s seed if the sex is one other than their own.)